“Oilex NL regrets to announce the resignation of David Archibald as managing director of the company, and the board wishes to express its appreciation for David’s contribution,” said yesterday’s notice to the ASX.
“The company’s current chief financial officer, Simon Robertson has been appointed to the board and has been appointed acting chief executive officer (CEO) on an interim basis. The company is presently engaged in recruiting a new CEO with appropriate oil and gas industry experience.”
Oilex chairman Max Cozijn said the decision was solely that of Archibald. He denied shareholder pressure was responsible for the resignation.
“Naturally we’re all disappointed the Rookwood field didn’t turn out the way we would have liked but that’s the vagaries of the oilfield,” he said.
Oilex made a placement of a million shares at 83c in November, which has generated some disappointed shareholders with the stock currently languishing around 30c.
St Georges Tce speculation has it that Archibald was unable to deal with the disappointment of Rookwood. The field initially looked like being a 'company maker' and drove the share price from 16c to $1.00 within four days, and then to a peak of $1.20.
Cozijn said the company would probably announce a replacement from a shortlist in about a week, “once we’ve done our homework.”
The irony of this situation is that one of Oilex's partners is Victoria Petroleum, whose MD John Kopcheff took more than 90 wells and almost 20 years to chalk up his first commercial discovery. Since then VicPet has made another three probable discoveries.
